A new shopping mall in Maplewood is being built on ground that is contaminated with vinyl chloride, benzene and other solvents, as well as gasoline. The state Department of Natural Resources gave its okay. DNR says such projects are acceptable as long as the chemicals do not put the environment or public health at risk. A DNR spokesman tells the St.Louis Post-Dispatch it is sometimes not technologically or economically feasible to make some properties perfectly clean before they’re re-developed. A spokesman for the Sierra Club sees the policy as a weakening of cleanup standards.
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